Love Beyond Borders: Unique Stories From Kerala To Korea And Punjab To LA

Love goes beyond geographical and cultural differences; if anything, it brings together distinctive cultures and faiths together and makes for a powerful, unbreakable bond for the ages. As we honour and celebrate love this week, let's find out what it took for couples from different countries to embark on such a journey and what being together means to them.

In this candid conversation with SheThePeople during Valentine's week, couples share their journeys of togetherness, their challenges, and what keeps them going strong.

Love Beyond Borders

Hannah Rogers and Vidhur Goyal

"I loved how Vidhur made me feel at ease the first time we chatted. I am an American and he is an Indian and, although we belong to different cultures, we connected on a whole new level. We met in Los Angeles and immediately hit it off. We were getting to know each other, so we decided to stay together and spend more time in each other’s company. We grew closer and became best friends. With time, we realised we were meant to be in love and decided to get married. Both of us informed our families about our decisions and they happily agreed. It was finally time for the ‘meet the parents’ moment. We planned a trip to India to meet Vidhur’s family in Muktsar, Punjab, and that was that.

"Two families coming together for love is the most beautiful thing. The Indian wedding experience for my family and I was wholesome. My family loves India and spent a lot of time here earlier, so we were excited to plan an Indian wedding. It was great seeing how all my friends and family got so invested in the process. We spent so much time researching the traditions and shopping for traditional dresses. It was a diverse experience for us all and I feel so lucky about how supportive they were. I was intrigued by all the little traditions in between ceremonies that took place. I especially loved planning the pujas and the family traditions were so fun. The vibrancy that an Indian wedding brings with it is unmatched. The colours, the dance, the change of clothes for ceremonies and, most importantly, everyone coming together under one roof with all their heart. My family dressed up like never before; that’s what Indian culture does to you, it’s phenomenal. My in-laws welcomed me into the family with open arms. I couldn’t be happier becoming the desi bride on my wedding day and we are both grateful to be surrounded by people who value love above everything."

As narrated by Hannah to Bhawana

Amratha Sidharthan and Hyun-bin

"In 2020, when COVID-19 plagued the world, stuck in quarantine, in absence of friends and micro-interactions, I met the love of my life. My spouse Hyun-bin Kong is from South Korea, and I hail from a typical Keralite family. We met virtually via a language exchange app and discovered a love for each other while pursuing our favourite pandemic hobby: learning new languages. My interest in the Korean language began back in 2014 when I first watched a K-Drama & have never stopped learning languages ever since.

Our first exchange was really formal, not going any further than ‘hello, what’s your name’ but eventually conversations became regular in no time. We loved talking to each other and exchanging daily updates with one another about almost everything happening around and switched to calls from texts and within 3 months, we started dating, virtually! After a few months, we came to know we actually were born on the same date, month and year–just in different time zones. We both believe we were meant to meet each other. Soon after the lockdown was lifted in 2021 and visas were accepted, Hyun-bin told me he’ll be coming to Delhi. I was over the moon to hear that. Right from that moment, I started anticipating our first meeting. So we met. We met at a cafe in February 2021 and when I told my parents about him, unlike my expectation, they too loved him right away. In January this year, we got married in a simple Kerala-style wedding with close relatives & both our parents.

It’s been over 2 years of loving each other and even forever doesn’t seem enough with Hyun-bin. We are building our home, taking small steps together each day. Meanwhile, he is learning Hindi; I have become fluent in Korean.

Almost a year later, we are still walking, munching on endless ‘Biryani’ and ‘Ramyeon,’ and I know this was meant to be.

Looking back, everything turned out beautifully, just like a K-Drama, with us being the main characters and we couldn’t have imagined it better."

As narrated by Amratha to Misha, Team SheThePeople

Suggested reading: Married On Their Babies’ Birthday, Meet The Couple Who Made A Family Based On Love